Present Scenario of Education in Pakistan

The government of Pakistan recognized that education is the basic right of every citizen; therefore, access to education for every citizen is crucial for economic development and for poverty alleviation. The present government has given much importance to education sector it has not only emphasized raising the present literacy rate but also emphasized improving the quality of education. The over all estimated literacy rate was 50.5 percent, for male 63 percent and for female 38 percent during 2001-2002. Urban literacy rate was 70 percent and rural literacy rate is 30 percent during the same period. Pakistan net primary enrolment rate was 66 percent (male 82 percent, female 50 percent) and gross enrolment rate was 78 percent (male 91 percent, female 64 percent) during 2000-01. About 45 percent children who enrolled in grade-1 drop out before completing primary education cycle (male drop out 45 percent, female drop out 54 percent). There are about 4 million children of 5-9 age group who are left out of school. The left out includes those children who never enrolled and those who drop out.

Enrolment at primary level was 16.63 million during 2000-01. The gross enrolment at middle level was 34 percent, male 36 percent and female 33 percent in 2000-01. The gross enrolment at secondary level was 22 percent, 20 percent for female and 24 percent for male. The total number of Arts and Science colleges were 916 (male 536 and female 380) with the enrolment of 763,000 during 2000-01. There are 68 universities in Pakistan with the enrolment of 1.1 million. Out of the total universities, 40 universities are managed by public sector. There are 203,439 educational institutions in Pakistan of which 36,096 institutions are run private sector and the share of the private sector is about 18 percent.

The major issues and challenges of the education system include low literacy rate, high drop out rate, wide spread teacher absenteeism, weak management and supervision structure, shortage of trained and qualified teachers specially female, lack of teachers dedication, motivation and interest in their profession and lack of physical facilities. Moreover the curriculum is mostly outdated, irrelevant and does not fulfill the requirements of present day.